Are You?
by Redlance-ck
Summary: Chloe decides to let Beca know how she feels through song. During a night out with the Bellas. At a karaoke bar. [One-shot]


**A/N** : From this anonymous prompt over at my tumblr; If you're still doing prompts, I was thinking all the Bella's go out for karaoke and when it's Chloe's turn, she sings Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet to Beca because the lyrics are literally about her and then you can go from there.

* * *

"I'm doing it."

"Chloe-"

"I'm **doing** it." Beside her, Aubrey sighs as Chloe flips the song book closed and turns to face her. Her bright blue eyes are wide, searching, a little too close to innocent to actually be believed. "What?" Aubrey levels Chloe's exasperation with a glare.

"You **know** what." The captain folds her arms over her chest and stares Chloe down. The redhead doesn't so much as flinch. "Just because they aren't together anymore, that doesn't mean..." She sighs. "I don't want to see you get hurt." Aubrey gets scared. Chloe's seen it, many times, she's been there to hold the blonde's hand and rub her back, croon soothing words until her breathing evens out. She's also seen her nervous – because Chloe is the kind of friend who hangs around to help you clean up the puke – but Chloe's never seen her quite like this. Equal parts fearful and whatever emotion is responsible for ruling her desire to control, because the way she's looking at Chloe makes her feel really super grateful that there isn't a dungeon nearby that Aubrey can lock her in. To keep her safe, of course.

"I'm a big girl, Bree." Chloe reaches out and rubs her hands reassuringly up and down her best friend's arms. It appears to be having very little affect, so Chloe drops them back to her sides and shrugs her shoulders with a smile. "If it starts looking rocky, just close your eyes." Aubrey presses her lips into a thin line.

"That won't shut out the sound of your crying if-"

"Go. Sit." Chloe gives her friend a stern, but well-meaning glare and points over to where the rest of the Bellas are congregated. They'd pulled two tables together when they'd arrived at the little bar not far from the retreat, so that they could all sit together, and Chloe lets her eyes roam over the group for a second. They're all smiling and laughing as Fat Amy regales them with yet another story, this one complete with wild hand gestures, from one end of the table. Beca is one seat over from her, elbow propped against the table and chin resting atop her clenched fist. Chloe watches the brunette's smile slowly widen as Amy becomes more and more animated, finally splitting into an open-mouthed grin as she throws her head back in a laugh when the punch line is executed. She feels something tugging at the front of her shirt and blinks, tilting her head back towards Aubrey who's wearing the same frustrated expression that she always wears whenever Chloe gets distracted by Beca.

"You know what? Fine." Aubrey lets out an airy sigh and turns her nose up at Chloe like she really isn't bothered by any of this. "Maybe once you handle your toner, you'll be able to focus on the fact that Worlds is **around the corner**." And while it's true that Aubrey has moved on and away from the world of a cappella, she's still **Aubrey**. Chloe rolls her eyes and gives the blonde's shoulder a push. "Don't say I didn't warn you." She calls back. Chloe pretends not to hear.

She opts to wait at the side of the stage after the guy in charge of queueing up the songs explains that there's only one person ahead of her. That person is guy who looks to be in his early twenties, handsome in a Bruno Mars-wannabe kind of way, and he's doing his very drunken best to serenade a pretty brunette seated at a table with friends a few spots over from the Bellas. The lyrics to Savage Garden's 'Truly, Madly, Deeply' are sung with a truck load of very well-meaning emotion and it's clear to everyone in the bar – including the object of his affection – that he loves her. It's just too bad that the words themselves aren't all that clear, or in tune, and Chloe wonders how much the alcohol he's imbibed, potentially to garner the courage needed for this, is to blame for that.

Her eyes drift away from his brunette and land on hers. Beca's hunched over the table, eyes on the stage, and she's trying to blindly catch the straw bobbing in her drink with her lips. Chloe laughs and even though there's no way Beca could hear the sound over the singing, she's suddenly looking at Chloe from across the room. She arches a dark eyebrow, pointedly eyeing the guy on stage and Chloe grins, wrinkling her nose. Beca brings both hands to her neck and mimes strangling herself, but Chloe shakes her head, indicates the woman being sung to, and gives Beca the universal hand signal for 'okay'. Beca scrunches up her face and then she's the one shaking her head. Chloe laughs again and lifts a hand to point the first two fingers at her own eyes, turns them on Beca, then towards the guy's chosen gal. Beca nods a silent "you're on", and they wait.

When he finishes, stretching out the final note in a way that make Aubrey clutch violently at the edge of her seat, he exits stage left to a smattering of cheering and applause. And one very shrill whistle, courtesy of Stacie. Chloe follows him with her eyes as he makes his way back to the table, sparing a glance in Beca's direction to make sure she's doing the same, and they both watch him head towards the empty seat beside his friend, or maybe girlfriend. He doesn't manage to actually sit down though, because the brunette is leaping from her chair and wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him soundly. Chloe finds Beca again and grins triumphantly. Beca dismisses her with a wave of her hand, but doesn't look away, and Chloe motions downing a shot before rubbing her thumb and forefinger together; money. Beca rolls her eyes, but nods. Then Chloe's being tapped on the shoulder and told that her turn is up, and she always get butterflies before performing. But the good kind, the nice kind, the kind that makes her want to perform every day for the rest of her life. This time though, they feel a little different. A little like they might force her into repeating Aubrey's vom-fest up there and that would be really, really unfortunate for many reasons.

So instead she pastes on her biggest, brightest smile and climbs the steps. She walks until she's standing centre stage and takes a second to adjust the height of the microphone. And it really is only a second, so she's surprised that the Bellas can cry out as many catcalls as they manage to before she cuts them off.

"Hi, I'm Chloe." Somewhere near the back, she hears Fat Amy bellowing her name for the tenth time and Emily shrieking as the familiar trill of a tambourine filters out from the speakers. Her lips curve into a sheepish smile as she surveys the room. "But you probably already figured that out." A few laughs sift up from the audience, Amy once again proving to be the loudest person there, and the tambourine is joined by a guitar, then the low beat of drums. "And this, is Jet." Chloe slips the mic free from the stand and nods towards the sound guy, who turns up the volume just as the drums explode. And then Chloe's off, letting the rhythm guide her as she switches into performance mode and slips into the skin of a rock goddess.

"So, one, two, three, take my hand and come with me. Because you look so fine and I really wanna make you mine." Stacie is immediately on her feet, screaming at the top of her lungs while Beca, laughing, tries to pull her back down on one side, and Cynthia Rose dances at her on the other. "I say you look so fine, that I really wanna make you mine." Fat Amy is head banging, Flo keeps kicking her leg into the air – somehow managing to miss nearby patrons – but the rest of them are more or less dancing in their seats while they watch Chloe. "Oh, four, five, six, come on and get your kicks." Chloe sweeps her gaze along the people sitting closest to the stage, flicking her hair around in a move she throws at a man with dark hair and broad shoulders. "Now you don't need that money when you look like that, do you honey." She gathers part of the microphone cord in one hand, drawing it in towards her until her fist is clenched beside her hip as she throws them into a roll. "Big black boots," she sees a bunch of guys cup their hands around their mouths and whoop and holler at her, but Chloe's attention drifts right over them, "long brown hair," to Beca, "she's so sweet," who finally gives up on trying to control Stacie and looks back over at the stage, "with her get back stare." When their eyes meet, and right after Beca has blinked her surprised at finding the redhead already staring, Chloe winks at her.

There's a whole section of people to her right who have taken it upon themselves to pound out the beat of the song onto the tabletop and the attention, the excitement and enjoyment she can feel vibrating off of them showers every inch of her skin in goosebumps. **This** is why Chloe loves performing.

"Well I could see, you home with me, but you were with another man, yeah!" Stacie and Cynthia Rose are dancing hip to hip and Chloe struggles to sing through a smile when Beca has to push a hand against Stacie's backside to stop it from hitting her in the face. "I know we, ain't got much to say, before I let you get away, yeah!" A number of people in the crowd join in on the last word, then go quiet as they wait for it. Chloe lets the cord drop away and wraps both hands around the mic, staring down the length of it, right at Beca. "I said, are you gonna be my girl?" And it almost has her laughing out loud, the way Beca cocks her head like a spaniel and raises one eyebrow. But Chloe doesn't laugh, just flashes another smirk and dives into the next verse. She walks the stage, works it in a way Aubrey had never allowed her to, and maybe that's what has Beca looking so shocked. Maybe that's what has **Aubrey** looking so shocked, because Chloe catches sight of the blonde looking at her with her mouth wide open, jaw dropped in disbelief. Chloe catches her eye and brings a hand up to hover just under her chin. She makes a closing motion and, like tugging a puppet's strings, Aubrey does as instructed. "-now you don't need that money with a face like that, do you ya?" And Chloe can't quite stifle it this time because Aubrey, she's pretty sure, is **blushing** and her laughter is picked up by the microphone and carried out through the speakers, rolling into the bridge amid the song lyrics.

Beca is still watching her, the lights and shadows in the bar catching and illuminating her curious, albeit confused, expression as Chloe moves back to the mic stand and slips it back into place. She sees Stacie collapse back down into the seat beside her. "Well I could see, you home with me, but you were with another man, yeah!" Chloe slowly trails her fingers down along the metal stand as far as she can, "I know we, ain't got much to say, before I let you get away, yeah!" Then back up, and she runs her fingers through her hair, sweeping it back and to the side as her exertion gets the better of her and she lets out a little pant right before she says, "I said, are you gonna be my girl?" And points, right at Beca.

Beca, who visible jerks at the blatant attention, and turns her head to look **behind** her, as though Chloe has to be singing to someone else, just over her shoulder.

"-you home with me, but you were with another man, yeah!" She only turns back when Stacie bumps her shoulder roughly against Beca's, laughing at the look on the brunette's face. "I know we," Awkward befuddlement is Beca's default setting, Chloe is sure of it, "ain't got much to say," and then Stacie is dipping her head to say something to Bea that Chloe can't make out, "before I let you get away, yeah!" But Stacie is grinning from ear to ear as Chloe leans into the microphone, tipping the stand forward. "Uh, be my girl." Then stormy eyes find hers, "Be my girl." And Beca is suddenly grinning too. "Are you gonna be my girl?! Yeah." A rush of euphoria slams into Chloe as she finishes the song and more or less everyone in the bar erupts into applause. 'More or less', because Beca isn't clapping.

Beca isn't even moving.

Beca is just sitting there with a stupid grin on her face, while Stacie alternates between nudging her shoulder and shouting out Chloe's name. Chloe says something, maybe "thank you", into the mic and drops into a bow before taking her leave of the stage. The only time she looks away from Beca is when people get in her way as she's navigating a path back to the table, and when she gets there **all** of the Bellas are looking at her, Aubrey too. Watching as Chloe walks around both tables to Beca's side and holds a hand out to the seated woman. Eyebrows raised, heartbeat thumping.

"Well?" She asks, breathless, and it's as Beca's mouth shifts into a smirk that Chloe's notices the hand she'd offering is trembling slightly. "Are you?" Beca takes hold of it anyway. Beaming, Chloe closes her fingers around the hand and tugs Beca up and out of her seat. The brunette falls into her with a laugh that Chloe smothers with a kiss and even though it sounds like the bar around them explodes, she's sure it's just the Bellas making enough noise to crumble a building. A small town, even.

"You're such a dork." Beca says, breaking away only long enough to get the words out, then sinking into another kiss.

Dully, Chloe's aware of a man's voice – probably the guy in charge of the songs – telling someone – probably the guy who'd been on before her – that "I hope you were taking pointers, man. **That** is how you serenade your woman."


End file.
